Calculating Your Win Rate — Is Texas Holdem worth it?
If you are considering playing poker professionally, or even just playing habitually, you need to be able to calculate your win rate in order to figure out exactly how well you are playing. In the simplest form, your win rate is the amount of money you win divided by the time you spend playing the game. So for example, if you played for five hours and won $250, your pay rate would be $50 an hour.
Oftentimes it is not enough just to know your basic pay rate. If you are considering playing poker professionally, there are a few additional calculations that can be done to figure out how much of your basic pay rate was skill and how much was luck. Professional Texas Holdem players calculate their pay rate based on the number of big blinds that they win per hour. By calculating their pay rate this way instead of on a per money per hour basis, they can more accurately discern their overall skill level. A higher number of big blinds per hour equals a higher number of skill. It is possible for a player with a high big blind rate per hour to have a low dollar per hour pay rate. The discrepancy in this case is simply a result of a high skill player playing in a low valued game.
Depending on your personal skill level, and the setting that you most often play Texas Hold’em poker, you will have to find a pay rate calculation that works for you. However you choose to track your winnings, however, it is an important step to playing poker habitually.
